Photograph H492: how we know | NZ Dressing Station, Mailly-Maillet

Black and white photograph from 1 April 1918 of a two-storey French house with three dormer windows. A Red Cross sign hangs on sandbags beside the open front door, soldiers stand in the doorway and an ambulance is parked at the left. — **1 April 1918.** New Zealand medical men outside the dressing station. Photograph H492 by Henry Armytage Sanders, 1 April 1918. From the Leo Bestall diary and album, MTG Hawke’s Bay (public domain per the museum record).

The photograph

It was taken on 1 April 1918 by Henry Armytage Sanders. The number H492 is written on the image. It shows a house on the Somme with a Red Cross sign, sandbags, an ambulance and soldiers at the door.

The caption

A copy of the photograph is glued into the diary and album of Leo Bestall. Under it he wrote: “Our Dressing Station at Mailly-Maillet.” The word “Our” suggests he served with the station. His service record has still to be checked.

The record

MTG Hawke’s Bay holds the album and describes the photograph as a New Zealand dressing station at Mailly-Maillet. The record lists it as public domain.

What is still missing

The caption names the village. It does not name the street or the house, and it does not name the field ambulance. Those details are being researched, starting with the New Zealand war diaries at The National Archives.

Documented The photograph, the caption and the museum record exist and say what is described above.

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